I ran across a website that purports to grade websites on their visibility and to suggest ways to improve a website's prominence. I decided to see how SVR fared. The results are available through this link:

Since I'm not a techie, I don't understand all of the report, but it seems that there are some fairly simple things that we can do to improve our site's visibility. Some of them, such as including metadata, can be done at the webmaster level, but the rest of us can contribute by highlighting SVR at social ranking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and Delicious. If you are a user of one of these pages, please index SVR's homepage and rate it highly. Our Societas welcomes new blood, but prospective sodales need to find us in order to join.

This is a sound suggestion, as is Nonius Severus' earlier one of linking to our site content (the essays, Roman calendar and such) on Wikipedia pages. Of course, face-to-face and word-of-mouth are always live options, too...and I think the folks we get that way tend to actually stick around and do something. >({|:-)

[Webmaster's Note: This ended up being a bogus service. Blecch; we didn't need that kind of help.]

While we are on this subject. I wish to bring up an aspect of SVR of which all Sodales should be aware. The cost of maintaining SVR is not much, it is just a matter of who shall pay when costs arise. When we moved to iPower Locatus was gracious enough to pay the fees. Then, to keep the site up after a disruption when our iPower contract expired, initially I paid the cost and then Tergestus and other members of the Curia contributed. When we moved to Cynico Marius paid for the new domain name (I think it was about $35 US), and then Marius covered a quarter of our annual subscription and I the other three-fourths on a total of $120 US. SVR is a volunteer organization. We depend on our Sodales to contribute material for our website, of which we could use some more. We have also relied on Sodales contributing in other ways, whether it is a little work or, at times, towards the cost of keeping SVR running. While our boards have remained generally open to others, remember that to be a Sodalis requires that you do contribute in some way to SVR. What we ask most is that you contribute time and effort, and this would include in promoting SVR to others.

Hic Gnaeus Draco:> ...I intend on restarting the Ludi Societatis and see if there's any interest in it.Y digo yo...

IO! I would very much like to see the races in action again! But you'd best avoid the beast-hunts; my Pax Viridis factio still lurks in the corridors, ready to carve our lupine initials in materials much softer than stone. <feg>

Mi Iohanne, your sensible request got ported along with its firstfruits: There is now a Comitia --> Aerarium Societatis topic.

Let the Games (of all sorts) Begin!....well, as soon as we're organized. >({(;-)

Salvete, amici Romani!> I have received an offer from Internet Corporation Listing Service to promote our site...I have since received information that this service, like many others of its kind, is a scam. Not that I was going for it anyway. This may sound retro, but I've never been into popularity for its own sake. I prefer making ourselves known directly to like-minded others, face-to-face if possible, by word of mouth otherwise. I think prospective members who find us by such means are more likely to stick around, and even contribute, than people who just tripped over us on their way to a virtual nail salon.

The last time I had access to the site stats, we had no shortage of visitors. Quite a few of them searched for us by name; many others got here riding search-terms such as "Roman culture", "Roman civilisation", and "Religio Romana". They get referred to the site from the Board, and the Board to the site, in roughly equal numbers; these numbers far exceed 2004's, which many Sodales consider our peak year for manpower and participation. (Now all we have to do is get 'em in the door and doing things...)

We are plenty visible to the folks who could most benefit, and benefit from, the Societas Via Romana. I can hardly see paying someone else to make a Great Big Noisy Fuss on our behalf. We are Romans. We can make plenty of Noise on our own. >({|;-)

Noster Timavus supra scripsit:> ...it seems that there are some fairly simple things that we can do to improve our site's visibility. Some of them, such as including metadata, can be done at the webmaster level...Dunno about metadata, but I'm good for page titles and "ALT" tags for the images. "Titles" are what you see in the title bar of your browser window. An ALT tag is a short text description of the image that, in some browsers, pops up when you hover the cursor over the image. Text-only browsers and voice-reading software can 'see' them. Search engines can too. The Outpost has 'em; the SVR site did not...until this morning.

Done so far:- Site Index (the main page)- Major section indices: FAQ, Chat, Members, Regulae, Contact- All Member pages- All Regula pagesThe Collegia section is a project unto itself; it and its subpages have by far the most illustrations. They're next.

"Titles and ALT tags, mi Mari? That's it??"

Several months ago I did the Webalyzer analysis on the SVR site, and then (just for kicks and grins) did one on the Outpost too. I was shocked by the results: The SVR site was visible to only 20% of potential visitors and their search engines; the Outpost, 80%.

I could just hear the cries: "You've been holding out on us, Mari!" Mortified, I tore at my hair and rent my garments, and sat in a heap of ashes for several days while meditating upon the following conundrum: What am I doing for the Outpost that I'm not doing for the Societas?? The Outpost is far, far from being a Web-code showcase, unless your HTML museum has a Neolithic wing. But it does have descriptive page titles and alt tags for the pics. I guess that's the difference between inheriting a site and building one up from scratch. So--I'm bringing our humble Pages up to frontier milspec.

Well, I've been hammering away at our titles-and-image-tags project for a couple of months now. I'm massaging the Collegia pages now; CollHist is done, and I just started CollArt. (The images I've added myself are already ALT-tagged, saving me a heck of a lot of work this go-'round.)

I am pleased to report that our site ranking has risen from 20 a couple of months ago to 39 now. We're catching up with the Outpost, which pulls a rating of 45 on its current server this month, and 15 on its yet-to-be-unveiled new domain, romanoutpost.org (hosted by noster Octavius, natch!).

What's the SVR's visibility today...? "The answer is...42." From http://website.grader.com :"A website grade of 42/100 for http://www.societasviaromana.net means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 42% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others."Our ranking the last time I checked was 39/100. For comparison, Nova Roma's at 65/100, while the Outpost scored 46 at its old domain and a humble 6 on its new server. (I really need to let people know it's been moved.)

Quickie thing y'all can do: The grader counts inbound links from other sites in our favor. You can link to the SVR on your Profiles for other Roman fora and social-networking services. (Just a suggestion; I won't chuck you off the Board if you don't, promise!) >({|:-)

I hope I don't ruffle any feathers when I say this, because it is not my intent, but as a more or less objective observer from the outside, I have to ask:

What do you guys believe in? What do you stand for? What is your purpose? What is your vision?

Reading through your threads, it doesn't really come across what you are trying to do. A lot of your membership seems bound up in Nova Roma, and a lot of the projects you mention on this Comitia page mention Nova Roman projects. And some of your threads, like the Sylla one, are basically soap opera style gossip on the underside of Nova Roma and its magistrates, which is worthy as a chuckle for a few seconds but becomes increasingly distracting and tawdry with each successful view.

Maybe you guys know where Nova Roma ends and SVR begins - but as an outsider I don't.

So I think SVR needs to ask itself exactly what it is trying to accomplish, and then go from there. Get a clear vision and work toward it. If you have a vision apart from providing a "safe refuge" from Nova Roma, I don't see it, and I thinkthat is your visibility problem.